


The Legend Of Persephone and Hades In Star City

by sweetiepie1019



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Greek Mythology - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-17
Updated: 2015-11-17
Packaged: 2018-05-02 02:33:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5230553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetiepie1019/pseuds/sweetiepie1019
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>There was a woman who was like a sunbeam that had got up and put on a pencil skirt and glasses and started walking around with the rest of the mere mortals.  And there was a man with the name of a ruler who became to so many people nothing more than a cowl and name of fear and death.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>A Greek myth retold in Star City.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Legend Of Persephone and Hades In Star City

**Author's Note:**

> I was on a roll. I've been thinking about this myth a lot lately, and there's definitely some Olicity parallels. One day I'll probably write a proper AU for these two, but for now, this sort of train of thought comparison is what I came up with. Hope you guys enjoy!

Lots of people say it. 

“Every story has already been told.”

In a basic sense, they’re right. There’s only a few stories tell, right down at the root of them. Tragedy, comedy, the quest – hero story, love story.

But that’s okay. Because even when a story follows the same lines, the great thing about humans is they find new ways to fit in them – new colors, new patterns, things that make them stand out.

So, for example, an old legend – let’s say, the myth of how the goddess of spring became the queen of the Underworld – might find itself being retold in a modern damaged city as a love story. But while at least one of them knew mythology passably well – not the one who had dropped out of four schools, unsurprisingly – neither of them would have seen the similarities themselves. They were just creating their own story.

There was a woman who was like a sunbeam that had got up and put on a pencil skirt and glasses and started walking around with the rest of the mere mortals. She couldn’t actually make flowers grow or anything like that, and in fact was rather gardening adverse. But she was brilliant and kind and always kept a potted plant or two around her apartment, so it was close enough.

And there was a man with the name of a ruler who became to so many people nothing more than a cowl and name of fear and death. He built a cold world underground and hunted down those he would kill. He was a creature of twisted justice, rather than a shepherd of souls, but he ruled the Underworld all the same.

When they met, the man didn’t immediately fall in love with the woman. Nor did he run into her office with four horses and a chariot and drag her into a hole in the ground, which for all practical purposes was probably for the best, not least of all because they were ten stories up. He just brought a laptop and a really bad cover story. But she pursed her lips and tilted her head at him and he felt the darkness around him lighten just a little bit.

That was how Oliver Queen met Felicity Smoak – and why he kept coming back.

Because there were other perfectly capable IT specialists in his family’s company. It would have been safer to use someone else, probably, someone who didn’t ask a lot of questions, who didn’t have any connections to members of his family. But Oliver kept going back to Felicity because she’d make a quip or smile at him and things were brighter around her.

When he finally invited her into his world, there was a hole, but it was in his chest, not the ground, and he was bleeding all over her tiny, sensible car. So if anyone was doing any dragging down into the Underworld, it was technically her, with his blood smearing dark stains on her bright purple sweater. She was panicking, but _for_ him, not because of him.

She agreed to work with him all on her own. Because in this story, Felicity was the (ninja hacker) goddess, and she was the only one who could decide if she stayed or went.

(Besides, if her mom had seen Oliver, she would have probably encouraged Felicity to stick around anyway. Vengeful god of the seasons, Donna Smoak was not.)

For the next year and a half, she became his partner. They stayed in his Underworld, but his darkness didn’t infect her; instead, she brought him closer and closer to her light. He was better with her around, and her smile made him smile, like he did with no one else. Slowly, falling in love with her crept up on him.

He tried not to. But how could he not love the person who made him not want to be darkness anymore? That let him know he didn’t want to die in his Underworld alone? Even if he couldn’t have it, it was nice about having something to dream about again.

So he loved her openly and pushed her away. Told her to go back to the world above. And she did – part of the time. She held him at arm’s length, because he put himself there, but she kept coming back. Felicity wanted both, and Oliver didn’t have it in him to try harder to make her leave him completely.

Then she walked even further into the darkness after him and told him she loved him. And still he went farther into the dark, further than he’d ever been – until he finally found his way back out. Following her light.

They tried to live in the world above alone. In the end, however, they realized they belonged to both worlds. They moved between them, together.

Felicity became Oliver’s queen in the Underworld, and he became her consort in the world above. Her light became his, and the darkness never took either of them again.

(And they kept ferns around, just as a reminder. That some things are good in both the light and the dark.)

They were never gods, exactly, but they were heroes; and in time, they became legends, and a story, all their own.

**Author's Note:**

> My Tumblr: sweetiepie1019
> 
> My Twitter: socontagious19


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